Description

Susan Stronge brings together a beautifully curated treasury of the greatest wonders to survive from on of the most elegant and refined courts in world history. This, truly, is the art of a golden age. William Dalrymple

The Great Mughals presents, for the first time the opulent, internationalist culture of Mughal Hindustan in the age of its greatest emperors: Akbar (r.1556-1605), Jahangir (r.1605-1627) and Shah Jahan (r. 1628-1658). Providing a compelling new narrative to describe the origins of Moghul art, it explores how a huge Iranian influence permeated the sophisticated craft traditions of the Indian subcontinent to create a distinctively Mughal court are included: from contemporary portraits to jewelled gold vessels and carpets. In chapters that conjure the unique dynamics of each reign, essays with historical sweep combine with texts focused on important objects to tell unexpected stories about a dynasty perhaps best known for commissioning the Taj Mahal.

Publisher Review

From the ramparts of the Agra
fort, the Mughal Emperors once ruled over the greatest and most populous of all
Muslim Empires. The Mughals claimed the loyalty of some 100 million subjects-
five times the number of those ruled by their Ottoman rivals, and many times
that ruled by their westerly neighbours, the Safavids of Isfahan.

Perhaps more than any other
Islamic dynasty, the Mughals made their love of architecture and the arts a
central part of their identity as rulers, believing that artists and architects
were, in the words of the Emperor Humayun, “the delight of all the world.”

In this magnificent catalogue
of her astonishing V&A show, Susan Stronge brings together a beautifully
curated treasury of the greatest wonders to survive from one of the most
elegant and refined courts in world history. Mixing the art of Timurid Central
Asia with that of Hindu Rajasthan and cross fertilising both of these with
new ideas brought from Jesuit Portugal and Jacobean London, the Mughals created
an entirely new aesthetic.

Their kharkhanas and khazanas
became a new world of artistic expression marked by unprecedented
experimentation in miniature painting and ivory and jade carving, a world of
silken hangings and coats of gilded and inscribed Mughal armour. Here can be
found teak furniture inlaid with mother of pearl, emerald-set daggers and
diamond-studded scabbards, jade drinking cups in the form of antelope beside
balustrades of Makrana marble studded with gleaming semi-precious stones the
colour of pigeon’s blood, yellow topaz and lizard-green gems. This, truly, is
the art of a golden age.

William Dalrymple, 2nd July 2024